JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure 9 – Everybody Wang Chung Tonight

Still laughing at the revelation of vampire Chinese Vegeta’s name: Wang Chung. (Or Wang Chan as I’ve seen it represented on the JoJo wiki. Given the source, it’s certainly still meant to evoke a certain British New Wave band.) Oh, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Between that and Father Styx, I know I can look forward to more great JoJo names. (Well, also because of the JoJo OVAs. There are some great names there, too. Don’t spoil for those who already know!)

So this finale was quite . . . explosive, eh? Eh?! *nudges elbow into your e-ribs* I’m glad there was no false suspense built about whether Dio was truly dead. The hero cannot be allowed to have a happy ending, duh! Wasn’t Dio’s body disintegrated in the previous episode, though? I guess that was all for dramatic effect. Dio cutting his own head off his body so that Wang Chung can catch it and put it into one of the jars from Futurama is pretty boss, though, so I can forgive it. The jar seemed to exist mostly for giving Dio a clean place to inhabit, because he sure as hell doesn’t need it for protection — he’s got eye lasers and neck tentacles! I don’t remember vampires having eye lasers before now; this secures Dio’s position as the World’s Greatest Vampire.

Dio getting flustered and angry while JoJo hugs him into his broad, mighty chest. Moe.jpg.

JoJo sure got taken down in a hurry, didn’t he? Then again, like me, he probably wasn’t expecting Dio to have eye lasers. That JoJo was nonetheless able to move out of the way enough that Dio struck his neck rather than his brain is a testament to JoJo’s coolness. (He was moving faster than the speed of light!) It was hilarious to see Dio quite helpless and angry as his perfectly plotted plan imploded because Wang Chung is an arrogant shonen villain crony. “Don’t be silly, Master Dio, the hero of this series couldn’t POSSIBLY pull off a final attack that will kick off an improbable turn of events! That never happens!” Silly Wang Chung! Now JoJo controls your body.

But, yes, overall a good ending befitting the ridiculousness of this series. The more I think about it, the more I enjoy the appearance of that one vampire in the dining area. How did he get there? From the sound of it, he was turned after he got onto the boat. Did they just tell him to keep quiet until the right time to strike? In all, quite the silly plan, but any operation that results in a horde of vampire zombies in tuxedos running around a cruise ship has my approval. Perhaps the only truly disappointing start is that Erina remains a rather lame character. At least she gets a cool escape by yoinking Dio’s indestructible coffin and floating away on the high seas with a baby.

So here we are at the end of “Phantom Blood.” It was a good, tremendously fun ride, and I continue to be excited by the repeated assertions of some JoJo fans I follow on Twitter that the next arc, “Battle Tendency,” is roughly one bajillion times better than “Phantom Blood.” Normally this kind of talk pops up when the beginning of a show is not good, and thus it makes me skeptical since people are extra desperate for folks to not hate on their beloved fictional story. But in this case, just about everyone still watching JoJo has enjoyed “Phantom Blood.” Nobody is afraid of people being scared away; they’re simply hyped for more awesomeness. So in this case, their hype has me hyped as well!

I know precious little about “Battle Tendency”: Part of it takes place in New York, and part of it takes place in Mexico. There are more vampires. (But now they’re American vampires . . . or possibly Mexican vampires? Why not?!) There are Nazis. (Perhaps the action will travel to South America at some point? I’d enjoy some Boys from Brazil-type action, but I believe this arc takes place in the 1930s, so that wouldn’t make any sense.) The main character, Joseph Joestar, is voiced by Tomokazu Sugita. And there’s the extent of my knowledge! People in the know, please reveal no more! I’m prepared for anything to happen in this arc.

Yep. Being made by the guys who made some of the NURATO fighters and recently asura’s wrath. It might not become the most competitive fighter around, but it sure as hell seems like a treat for Jojo fans.

I would like to how they would adapt part 5 and 7 more than the other parts now, mostly because I lovelovelove part 5, and part 7 is just wacky, way more than it’s possible. I would like to say the real reason why, but then it would be MASSIVE SPOILERS.

Yep, I enjoyed the OVA adaptations of “Stardust Crusaders” very much, but I hear a few things were changed around. I imagine they crunched events a bit, too, although in terms of time it’s about twice as long as David Production’s “Phantom Blood.” Does that sound right? Anyway, yes, I want to see “Stardust Crusaders” in this style.

I’m kind of confused why they made it more like laser eyes and less like “eyes that shoots its aqueous humor (or something. My biology is failing me) at high pressure as hypersonic bullets”, bit maybe that would require too long of a convoluted explanation.

I was in a Skype call last night and was told about the same thing, haha. Maybe it’s just difficult to get across what Dio is projecting from his eyes? They at least don’t LOOK like traditional lasers. (And Araki has the advantage of the written form to convey his information.)

They considering he is not dead. And the fact that they never really top him given that he is heavily involved in every part of Jojo. (With Part 8 being the only one he is not involved in so far though he is responsible for it happening)